Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said he had advised Narendra Modi to skip Wednesday’s session as he had “pukhta (credible)” information that some Congress MPs could reach the Prime Minister’s seat and do something “apratyashit (unforeseen)”.
Modi on Wednesday evening did not come to the Lok Sabha for his scheduled reply to the motion of thanks to the President’s address amid sustained Opposition protests over the refusal to allow leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to speak after he tried to quote from an unpublished book by former army chief M.M. Naravane.
The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the motion of thanks to the President’s address without the leader of the House’s customary reply to the debate amid a din, as the Opposition chanted the slogan “LoP ko bolne do (Let the LoP speak)”.
“When the Prime Minister was supposed to respond to the President’s address in the House, I received credible information that several members of the Congress party could have approached the Prime Minister’s seat and caused an unforeseen incident,” Birla said after the House resumed at 3pm after two adjournments. He then adjourned the House for the day, slamming the Opposition members for waving placards in violation of rules.
“Had any incident taken place in the House, it would have torn apart the democratic traditions of the country,” Birla said, adding that he had therefore requested the Prime Minister not to be present. To support his concern, Birla recalled that a group of women Opposition MPs had reached the Treasury benches and the Prime Minister’s seat during protests on Wednesday.
The Speaker also condemned the Opposition for staging a protest inside his chamber, saying such an incident had never occurred. “It has never been the tradition of this House to bring political differences to the office of the Speaker. What happened yesterday is a black spot in the history of Parliament,” he said.
Congress MPs had rushed to Birla’s chamber on Wednesday to lodge their protest after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey cited certain books in the House to target members of the Nehru-Gandhi family. The Congress alleged that Dubey was allowed to quote from the books in violation of rules that were cited to prevent Rahul from speaking.
Rahul had written to the Speaker accusing him of denying him an opportunity to speak. In the letter, Rahul said it was the Speaker’s constitutional responsibility to safeguard the rights of all members and alleged that, for the first time in parliamentary history, the leader of the Opposition had been prevented from speaking on the President’s address at the behest of the government.
Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra termed the Speaker’s comments an “absolute lie” and said Modi lacked the courage to come to the House. “There was no question of hurting the Prime Minister. He is hiding behind the Speaker,” she told reporters, adding that Opposition protests were inevitable if BJP members were allowed to “stand and talk nonsense”, referring to Dubey.